My thoughts are, this is a horrible idea.. one of the worst ideas at all to be exact.
It really gets to the point of ridiculousness, anything that has the least to do with a tiny bit of efforts on ones part is getting asked to be removed..
I mean seriously.. Why can't take people the game for what it is, and what it offers.. Jesus Christ.... Really..

I didn't say remove mats, I said remove the skills. It just makes gathering more dynamic, in that it can match your leveling speed, and additionally would allow a greater diversity in materials needed for various crafts since there wouldn't need to be a direct pairing. As to why not take the game for what it is? Because it's fun to think of ways to manipulate stuff. I prefer legos, not dollhouses, as it were.

Seen it in an other game not allowed to talk about which one. Your suggestion would increase the competition on gathering though, and given the resources aren't individual but are competed for (unlike certain other game) this poses a problem.

There's a better solution to your problem: make professions account-wide instead and allow players to switch them (when nothing is on CD).

That's interesting. Allow people to gather anything, but increase % chance of more materials based on your gathering skill level.

I like that idea too. I'm on record actually hoping that someday they redo the whole system and make it so that in terms of professions you can do all of them if you wish. I can imagine some really interesting recipes for gear or weapons that would require mats from all around and multiple kinds of material. Add an enchant and a gem for customization and see if you can profit.

To me...the catch up is...you can fly. Which is a heckuva lot faster than hoofing it around on foot or ground mount...which is what folks did if they were raising skill while leveling.
Some time needs to be involved...or it devalues the time and effort other have put in. I've moved professions around a number of times...I didn't think the time I put in to do so was excessive.

I change profs all the time. I have problems that way While on a level 90, it's not a big deal. However, leveling a prof as you level your character just doesn't work. Your mats are always way behind what's appropriate to your level. And if you have to wait until 90 so you can fly around and quickly power level your prof, how is that better than being able to skip farming boring and worthless herbs instead of spending that time farming stuff that's actually applicable to your current level?

Every character on an account would have shared Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Herbalism, Mining, etc. skills. Players would only level the professions they enjoy, but have the ability to collectively level every profession through their mains/alts.

The benefit would be you'd be able to help people without hopping in and out of different characters. ..and all those painful 'unique' mats would have to go from BoP to BoA.

Interesting.. Because I've leveled several toons with gathering professions and every time I leave a zone the nodes are green or grey. It's not that hard.

A single LFD will shoot you up one or two levels, pushing you out of a zone quite rapidly. This is exacerbated by heirlooms, and in the case of monks, their +50% bonus xp for an hour each day. You could certainly make leveling slower, but I'm not sure that's the best solution.

I feel like people didn't read the first post. He isn't saying to remove gathering professions as a whole. They will still exist. But instead of taking up a primary profession slot, they will instead be A)secondary(like fishing, and you get all three) or B)tied to primary professions(BS gets mining, etc). I'd prefer A tbh, because with B, some professions would only get one gathering skill, while others get two, or even none(tailoring/enchanting). I'd prefer the direction Guild Wars 2 went where you get all gathering professions and 2 main professions. A much better design imo.

---------- Post added 2013-02-04 at 05:44 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Eschaton

I like that idea too. I'm on record actually hoping that someday they redo the whole system and make it so that in terms of professions you can do all of them if you wish. I can imagine some really interesting recipes for gear or weapons that would require mats from all around and multiple kinds of material. Add an enchant and a gem for customization and see if you can profit.

This is the system GW2 uses. You can actually have max level in all professoins, but can only have 2 active at a time. Switching costs x amount of gold. And many of the 'legendaries' require materials crafted from various professions. Pretty neat.

A single LFD will shoot you up one or two levels, pushing you out of a zone quite rapidly. This is exacerbated by heirlooms, and in the case of monks, their +50% bonus xp for an hour each day. You could certainly make leveling slower, but I'm not sure that's the best solution.

So really on that note, it seems more or less you're complaining due to features added to the game to make it easier, and it's just not easy enough yet.

So really on that note, it seems more or less you're complaining due to features added to the game to make it easier, and it's just not easy enough yet.

OR, he may be suggesting that the current prof leveling system was designed before those features were implemented and Blizzard may want to reconsider the system now that they're present.

EDIT: To put it a different way:

There's a reason Blizzard starts the prof recipes in a new xpac (e.g., MoP recipes available at 500 skill) below the max level provided from the previous xpac. They understand there's a more complicated prof leveling system when you get close to max that is of little benefit to a toon that's just leveling to reach the new recipes. So there's already an adjustment built-in to the game.

Last edited by Kalcheus; 2013-02-04 at 05:49 PM.

You're not allowed to discuss conspiracy theories on mmo-champion, which makes me wonder what they're trying to hide.

So really on that note, it seems more or less you're complaining due to features added to the game to make it easier, and it's just not easy enough yet.

I wasn't complaining at all. I was thinking of two things: 1) a potential direction Blizz might be headed given their new approach to bypassing old mats, and 2) something that would add flexibility to the game. None of that makes anything "easier", nor does it amount to complaining.

Every character on an account would have shared Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Herbalism, Mining, etc. skills. Players would only level the professions they enjoy, but have the ability to collectively level every profession through their mains/alts.

The benefit would be you'd be able to help people without hopping in and out of different characters. ..and all those painful 'unique' mats would have to go from BoP to BoA.

I suspect that more than one of us have done the "Empire of Alts for Professions" thing in the past to one degree or another. I'd be very pleased to have all of that on one toon, especially if going forward from here, the game stays as focused on keeping players busy at end game as it is now.

This is something that I have been saying for awhile. I hope all the professions get a revamp either in 5.3/.4 or in the next xpac. Leveling up a profession should be something you want to do leveling up because it offers a nice boon not something you do when you hit max level and just blitz through. Aside from small niches in certain professions (level 60 enchants for heirloom weapons come to mind) almost every plan you learn outside of the current expansion is completely useless. I challenge you to find a blacksmith piece or tailoring piece that is either

A) Better than an heirloom
B) Better than a blue drop from a LFD run
or
C) Better then a quest reward you could get from the same level zone that would warrant spending time on a profession vs just keep leveling

Gathering is in the same boat. Anything outside of the current expac mats is pretty much useless to anyone NOT leveling a profession. You don't take gathering because you think your gonna make a killing selling copper ore and peacebloom. You take gathering because you know all the level 90 players want ghost iron ore and trillium and you only gather enough copper and peacebloom to get you to the next tier of picking. Then you either dump all your copper and herbs on the AH or vendor them and never revisit those zones for minerals.

This has the adverse effect of making all previous tiers of profession crafting MORE expensive then the actual current tier as there is constantly a shortage of those mats.

I suspect that more than one of us have done the "Empire of Alts for Professions" thing in the past to one degree or another. I'd be very pleased to have all of that on one toon, especially if going forward from here, the game stays as focused on keeping players busy at end game as it is now.

Especially with the inclusion of more queued activities, helping people can seem like a penalty to your own fun sometimes. This move would help improve the health of their communities overall.

The idea of moving gathering skills to a joined status with their main production skills is good, but doesn't go far enough to help the game in its current form.

Especially with the inclusion of more queued activities, helping people can seem like a penalty to your own fun sometimes. This move would help improve the health of their communities overall.

If you refer to not being on the realm world: agreed, but seems same as it used to be. If you refer to joining a group: there's meeting points in major cities. No need to join group. If you refer to relogging to alt: the queue goes on hold then.

Doesn't "remove" gathering professions at all. You will need to gather tons and tons and tons of ghost iron. What it does it make older mats entirely obsolete, which means leveling a gathering profession is exactly a waste of time beyond whats current and usable. The direction changed should go similar to that of fishing; you can mine any node but your yield as a low level will be pathetic, while at higher levels it will be substantial. Profession is still required.

The general idea it to level the profession as you level your character... Just try and think of the days where flying mounts didn't exist at all. All things considered, we have it easy now by being able to fly around and spend 10 minutes leveling and farming through zones instead of hours by land mount. Not to mention you'd probably see drastic auction house price swings and so forth and so on.

I recently level a naked toon, no heirlooms, no guild. You out level the gathering areas you need too fast since low level crafting still requires you to get a crap ton of mats to make some items for 1 skill point. Not to mention you still need to cross collect like leather and cloths to make low level weapons. If they made leveling low levels 2 skill points per item there would be no issues while leveling. I do support this that way I can focus on leveling and having fun instead of worrying about catching up my profs before moving to the next zone or going back once I have flying or hit max level.